{"id":501,"date":"2013-11-11T15:14:14","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T15:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joneslemongraham.com\/blog\/?p=501"},"modified":"2021-12-21T20:04:59","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T20:04:59","slug":"whats-a-trade-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joneslemongraham.com\/blog\/whats-a-trade-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s a trade secret?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Christopher Graham<\/a> and Joseph Kelly<\/a><\/p>\n

\"confidential1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Trade secrets are often a company’s most valuable assets.<\/p>\n

Illinois (and most other states) have adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act which defines a trade secret as:<\/p>\n

\n

information, including but not limited to, technical or non-technical data, a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, drawing, process, financial data, or list of actual or potential customers or suppliers, that:<\/p>\n

(1) is sufficiently secret to derive economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use; and<\/p>\n

(2) is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy or confidentiality. 765 ILCS 1065\/2(d)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In simpler terms, a trade secret is valuable information kept confidential. Common examples are Col. Sander’s recipe for fried chicken and the formula for Coca-Cola.<\/p>\n

But most employers aren’t in the fast food or soft drink industry.<\/p>\n

A more common example of a trade secret is a customer list.<\/p>\n

Is a list that only contains customer names and contact info. publicly available likely a trade secret? No.<\/p>\n

But what if a customer list contains other information that makes the list distinctive? Customer lists that include things like sales history, pricing information, contact info. for decision-makers, product preferences are much more likely to be trade secrets.<\/p>\n

A company\u2019s ability to succeed often depends on its ability keep its trade secrets protected. For more information on how to protect trade secrets, please see our post – “Protecting Trade Secrets and Confidential Information”<\/a><\/p>\n

Tags: Trade secrets, confidential information, customer lists, Illinois, Uniform Trade Secrets Act<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Christopher Graham and Joseph Kelly Trade secrets are often a company’s most valuable assets. Illinois (and most other states) have adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act which defines a trade secret as: information, including but not limited to, technical or non-technical data, a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, drawing, process, financial data, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joneslemongraham.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joneslemongraham.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joneslemongraham.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joneslemongraham.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joneslemongraham.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.joneslemongraham.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3184,"href":"https:\/\/www.joneslemongraham.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions\/3184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joneslemongraham.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joneslemongraham.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joneslemongraham.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}